Bulldozers flatten Shropshire pub once made popular by groups of bikers

Now work has been taking place on tearing down the former Stormy Petrel pub off the A41 in Tern Hill, near Market Drayton.

Last week demolition work was carried out at the pub, which has been closed for a number of years and previously been on the market for £475,000.

Despite receiving planning permission to turn it into a new restaurant and retail unit, owner Bal Singh said he still hasn't full decided what he wants to do with the site.

Mr Singh said: "We have got no final plans of what we are going to do. We are still thinking about what to do with it.

"We are just flattening it down for the time being.

"We will be taking advice and taking views from local people about what they think should be done with it."

Mr Singh also added an increase in business rates has also slowed progress with the site.

The building was closed in August 2010 when it was sold for £295,000 to developers who were hoping to convert it into a hotel.

But it was put back on the market in September 2012 for £475,000.

About four years ago it was bought by businessman Mr Singh who said he was prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds to give it a new lease of life.

In 2014 Shropshire Council approved plans to demolish the pub and create a new restaurant and retail unit on the site.

But the plans sparked a petition signed by 387 people against the demolition of the pub, which requested that it be refurbished into a family pub.

The pub, which was built in the 1930s, was once popular for bikers who used the car park for meets.

Last year travellers set up camp at the site before being moved on.

When Mr Singh bought the pub, he said: " "I can confirm that I have bought it.

"It's a building I have liked for some time and I think it has a lot of potential so I'm very pleased. At the moment we are just deciding what to do with it. I'd like to turn it into a restaurant."